>As I watched Sebastian play with his “laptop” yesterday for a half hour while I folded and put away laundry, I began thinking of which wonderful items have been or are our favorites. Knowing many other parents out there, I thought it would be fun to begin a list that might help people with kids who are younger than Sebastian, or inspire those of you with older kids to let me in on which are your child’s favorites.
Fisher Price Rainforest playmat. I don’t think I would have survived those months of watching two babies without this. They both loved it. The best part was that it played music if you nudged one of the four sides and flashed lights that were enthralling, but whether the boys were on their backs or their tummies, it was always good for at least 10 minutes of time to deal with the other one!
The Bumbo chair and this fabulous lion toy from an Eric Carle line that my mom found. He loved both of these items.
Stacking/nesting cups! We love these so much that we have several sets – in the living room, in the bathtub, in the water table, at Gramma’s house… This set is the best, but I can’t figure out right now which brand it is to tell you. I’ll try to figure it out later and update this post. The main thing is that it has cute designs on the bottom to use in the sand or with Playdoh, as well as little holes that make it fun to use in the bath. It is also nice because it has 10 cups, so for a while we kept five in his room and five downstairs. The only bad thing about this one is that if you lose one in the middle (which I did for a while), it doesn’t stack properly all the way up.
Wooden train set. This set began as a Thomas train starter set and has grown as I’ve found more and more components at consignment sales. He loves the bridges and tunnels the best.
This is a bus with MegaBlocks inside (and a driver). This is one of the toys he’s had and loved for over a year.
This Little Tikes truck with a handle is brilliant. It came with some farm animals that can ride on it, too that aren’t in the picture. They have others in the set like a fire truck, garbage truck, etc. The handle is what makes it so great, as well as the cute face on the front. Another toy he still plays with after a year.
LeapFrog Learn & Groove table. He began playing with it when he was much shorter and not even walking yet. I can’t even begin to tell you how wonderful this toy is. When he got bored with the English, we switched it to Spanish (which has a much catchier alphabet song, too, btw), and now he can flip all the switches himself, announcing, “This English. This Spanish.” It has songs, the alphabet, numbers, colors, instruments, and lots more. The legs are removable, too, so it can just sit on the floor when they are really small. This may be one that he will have to share with his sibling pretty early on!
This V-Tech baby laptop is fabulous, too. Sebastian got it for a first birthday present and, as you can tell from how this started, still plays with it for long periods of time. He knows what each button does and can tell me which one to press to hear a particular song on the music setting, e.g. blue sfare (square) play bingo song!
More great LeapFrog products. We have the Fridge farm set as well as Fridge Phonics. Seriously, I don’t know how else I could get dinner on the table some nights if he weren’t playing with these. He knows all these animal sounds and every single one of his letters. Thank you, LeapFrog.
We got him the Bubble Wash vehicle set that we are saving as a present from his little sibling this summer. Figured we should start off their relationship on a good foot.
I think this one is another Fisher Price, but the main attraction is that you push the red bird on top of the elephant, and it makes an elephant trumpeting noise, then rolls along the floor, pulling some other animals behind it if they are attached. The genius of the product is that it turns slightly as it starts to go each time, so Sebastian has spent hours overall following the thing around as it goes unexpectedly under the table or chairs in the kitchen. Good fun.
The only other Baby Einstein product either of us really love is this color game. If you squeeze one of the colored handles, it tells you the color and plays a little song as it flashes that color on top (epileptics beware: it flashes fast!). If you press two of the handles, it does the secondary color (e.g. blue and yellow becomes green). It does this in three languages, too! Plus the songs it plays are pretty fun classical pieces like the Can-can.
I can’t remember what brand this little car is, but it’s pretty great. Sebastian used it to learn to walk and still loves to push it. It can also sit down to use as a riding toy, but he is now too tall for it, so it’s back to being pushed.
Other low-tech items that I don’t seem to have pictures of Sebastian playing with (probably because I was getting something else done while he was busy), but that he has loved all the same:
Fisher Price stacking rings, 
shape sorter, and almost all of his Haba wooden toys, especially this brilliant stacker than can also be a pull toy:
The Haba stuff is ridiculously expensive, but I get it all used, and since it is wooden, it looks pretty much brand new.
Two final notes: First, all of these toys have also been tried and loved by many friends of similar ages to Sebastian, so I think they’re pretty safe recommendations. Second, I was in no way paid to endorse any of them, though I wouldn’t mind getting a call from someone from Fisher Price, LeapFrog, or Haba!
>it is such great FUN to toy shop; secondary pleasure is finding things around the house that they like such as paper towel tubes, measuring cups, and hair clips. Of course, empty boxes/crates remain a favorite. Thanks for the list and the memories!
>These were great reminders of the toys similar to what Jenna and Mathew loved so much. Especially the stacking toys which moved in to the stacking tupperware bowls! I can't figure out why they still don't like to re-organize my tupperware cupboard like they used to!